Rhonda Fenwick is a visual artist and began her art career creating work in painting, mixed media, collage, film, photography and text inspired by the natural world and our place in it. In her personal art practice, she continues to work across disciplines exploring and experimenting different media.
The opportunity to take part in the Creative Fuse project for the Cyber Eyes Wide Open came at a time when Rhonda’s work was at a standstill due to the COVID situation and lockdowns. Plus having re-located from South East England to the North East it was a great opportunity to meet and work with other artists, alongside academics and Cyber Security Companies.
The CFNE solution provided
Cyber Eyes Wide Open provided Rhonda with the opportunity to work with companies she had not worked with before in an area that seemed to be out of the ordinary. Taking tentative steps at the start and with the help and support from the Creative Fuse team, artists and company directors Rhonda began to think about the work could create. Having had the time to reflect and do research Rhonda soon settled into working through ideas for work.
The outcome of CFNE intervention
Rhonda was commissioned to make new work and to take part in two exhibitions in public venues.
In keeping with the CEWO theme of ‘Information Wave’, Rhonda presented several paintings:
- Tsunami, Wave of Information I (Acrylic on Canvas 213 x 122cm)
- Wave of Information (Acrylic on Canvas 50 x 50cm)
- Painted Boats
- Waves, Codes, Contemplating Humanity (North Beach Lindisfarne- Digital Print 297 x 420mm)
Different informational characteristics are embedded in the waves, positive, negative, benign, dangerous, personal, hidden, etc. Perhaps as boats representing different data types. Her primary 6 x 6 ft artwork depicts the struggle of the immenseness of information overload.
Rhonda’s work is inspired by the Japanese artist Hokusai’s iconic work the Great Wave- ‘The irresistible force of nature and the frailty of human beings’. The crashing wave paintings attempt to capture their unpredictable energy, one minute they are there and the next they are gone. This unpredictability is similar to how information technology can perform. Along with humanity’s incessant need to be heard and seen, overwhelmed with information and constant newsfeeds. The internet has created a tsunami to which we are all sucked into. The need for Cyber Security is crucial if we are to ensure personal information is protected.